On baseball.

Deja vu for Sosa's victim

CINCINNATI — Challenging Sammy Sosa is nothing new for Scott Sullivan. He has done it his entire career, although it might be time he reconsidered his approach.

"He's one of the best right-handed hitters in the game," Sullivan said. "Being right-handed, a right-handed reliever, I've faced him in some big situations the last six years."

Lately he has experienced diminishing returns.

Sullivan never owned Sammy Sosa. No pitcher ever does. But from his rookie season in 1997 through 2001, Sullivan had yielded only one homer to him.

Now he has given up three homers to Sosa in less than 10 months--Nos. 477, 496 and 500.

Sullivan shakes his head.

"One was a hanging slider, one was a fastball in and one was a fastball up," he said. "Tonight was a fastball away. He has my fastball about covered."

Sullivan has a vivid recollection of Sosa's home run on Sept. 15, at the since-imploded Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field, but he wasn't going to let it back him down when they met again in the Cubs' first game at the beautiful new stadium on the banks of the Ohio River.

This is a guy who lets his workload prove his toughness. He's a soft talker, but don't be fooled. He leads the majors in relief innings out of the bullpen since 1997. He doesn't duck assignments or dates with destiny, not with a two-run lead and nobody on base.

"Working with a two-run lead, I was going to challenge him," Sullivan said after the Reds had held on for a 10-9 victory, their first of the season. "Tonight I lost that challenge."

Fifty-three at-bats after facing Sullivan next door, Sosa got another crack at the 32-year-old workhorse from Alabama. Sullivan had retired all four hitters he had faced since replacing starter Danny Graves with the Reds leading 8-6 after five innings.

Graves had nicked Sosa with a pitch in the first inning and then retired him twice, on a strikeout and lazy fly to right fielder Austin Kearns. But it didn't matter how Sosa had looked earlier in the game. He was overdue to deliver, and everyone knew it.

Including Sullivan.

Sullivan started Sosa with an 88 m.p.h. fastball that Sosa missed with a violent cut. The next pitch was a fastball for ball one. But Sullivan then jumped ahead in the count when Sosa missed a slider. To be honest, Sullivan made Sosa look bad on the pitch, drawing hoots from fans.

Yet Sullivan knew he still needed one more strike.

"Good hitters make adjustments," he said. "That's why he has done what he has done the last few years and over his whole career. He made another tonight."

After the slider had fooled him, Sosa jumped right back into the box, digging his right foot into the Ohio dirt. He waggled the new bat that's part of his lucrative deal with a bat company and stared at Sullivan. Then he uncoiled on an outside fastball that was just below belt-high.

The ball jumped into the seats in about the time it took his wife, Sonia, to jump to her feet in the private box provided for the occasion. It briefly eluded fans in the $10 seats until a glove-wearing 22-year-old emerged with it.

The Reds declined to reveal his name, saying he wanted to sleep on the decision of what to do with the ball, but did list his injuries.

"He had a bloody left knee and bloody right knuckles," said Rob Butcher, Cincinnati's director of media relations.

For Sosa, the blast seemed to bring as much relief as pure joy. When he hit 10 homers in a 10-game stretch last August--with a three-homer game at Coors Field and two-homer games at Coors and Pacific Bell--he was at 493 with 41 games remaining.

From there, it didn't figure to be a long haul to 500, not with the pace that had spoiled Sosa's fans. At that point he was averaging one homer every 9.6 at-bats for 2002. But an outfield collision with Mark Bellhorn and the unwillingness of the New York Mets and others to challenge him prolonged the chase.

Give the Reds credit for not getting caught up in the occasion.

"We knew coming in that he was one away from it," said Graves, who couldn't bring himself to mention such a large number. "But I don't think you can change your style of pitching. You knew it was going to happen sooner or later, probably sooner. The great thing was he did it and we got a win. That's not a bad deal."

Before Sosa did his business against Sullivan, 99 major-leaguers had hit home runs this season. But among those, only one, Barry Bonds, could understand how special this one felt.

"When I made contact, I knew the ball was gone," said Sosa. "I felt like, `Wow, I got it."'

He's got it, all right.

Certain enshrinement in the Hall of Fame. A spot next to Ernie Banks as the only Cubs to hit 500 home runs. And the knowledge that he has a whole lot of home runs still left in him.